4 April 2022

Silent brain infarcts are associated with impaired cognitive function

Data from the Swiss-AF cohort shed light on the relationship between atrial fibrillation, brain lesions and cognitive performance

Under the direction of Prof. Michael Kühne, head of the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic at the University Hospital Basel (USB) and research group leader at the Department of Clinical Research (DKF), a new analysis from the Swiss-AF cohort was recently published in the European Heart Journal.

In their publication, the authors were able to show that new brain lesions occur in 5-6% of patients with atrial fibrillationwithin a two-year period, even though the majority of patients were taking blood thinners according to current standard therapy. Of these, 85% of all brain infarcts were silent, i.e., clinically unremarkable. This was associated with a relevant decline in cognitive performance.

Prof. Michale Kühne and Michael Coslovsky, PhD, Team Leader Data Analysis/Statistics at the DKF, explain the study results and their relevance for clinical practice in the following video:

left: normal MRI; right: brain lesions visible